bpsbassman

Great seeing you again Monique!!...............oh yeah, you too TJ! Its not every day I see a celebrity of your stature going through the store almost unnoticed!! I was really hoping to get out for the Brantford night myself but had to work unfortunately....DANG!! The OFC contingent was really impressive in numbers and stature!! Sure sorry I missed it. From everything I've heard, all seminars were well attended and very successful. I must say that I think I saw a somewhat significant moment in Canadian Angling History on the last Saturday of this year's BPS FISHING CLASSIC. Bob Izumi came in and put on a great show as always which was well attended. He stuck around for awhile afterwards to sign autographs. An hour later, he was followed by Dave Mercer. The crowd spread all the way back into Gifts and half way down the main aisle towards the front door!! When Dave was finished on the tank, he sat down at a table at the base of the tank and it took 1 1/2 hours before the last person in line got to see Dave!! He stayed there until he had seen and spoken to everyone. I really believe I witnessed the passing of the baton that day. Bob has been a tremendous credit to the whole Canadian fishing industry and continues to be, but I think Dave's momentum has propelled him to being the BIGGEST (pardon the pun )Angler in this country and is also well recognized across the border. He has helped introduce a new generation to the sport of fishing. You would not believe how many kids come into the store wearing a "Mercer" shirt!! Also, you can count on running out of whatever he was using the day after one of his shows! He is certainly a credit to the whole Canadian Fishing Industry and just a fabulous Ambassador for Bass Pro Shops. I have seen him work with kids and its amazing. The guys that helped open the Calgary Store said that he was a huge success out there and was well recognized by all the kids. With the decline in fishing numbers these last few years it is good to see someone inspiring the younger generation to get up from their video games and get out fishing! Thanks for the report TJ!!

I talked to Shawn a week or so ago and he was saying that he didn't have access to the internet currently.

Fabulous job Cookslav!! That is sure something to be proud of!! I have just started mine only having the studding up. I too am not looking forward to the mud work and taping. Mine will be done with a Fishing Lodge theme in mind. Reading your post has given me some more inspiration. Thanks and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

My thoughts and prayers are with your daughter and family Dave. Stay strong and BELIEVE!

Sad news Tom, especially this time of year. May you be heartened by all the good memories. Prayers are with you.

Good Day! Well I haven't been around here much lately, retirement has been taking up too much time (guess I surfed more at work than I realized). I came home on Sunday night after two "Gong Show" days at BPS. The parking lot and the store were absolute chaos! I thought that I would sit back and relax and decided to check the board and immediately came across this thread. Needless to say that I went to bed extremely pi$$ed off and frustrated. Marcus you have every right to be upset and you should have gone to see the MOD (Manager On Duty). What I find extremely frustrating though, is knowing of the dedication of my fellow fishing associates. Crap happens sometimes, but I have a lot of respect for their knowledge and work ethic. We have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30,000 skus in the fishing dept alone and it is a challenge to know where everything is (especially when they move around sometimes) and also to be an "EXPERT" in all fishing disciplines from fishing for bass, walleye, Musky, Pike, Perch, Salmon, Trout, Carp and yes even swordfish, 'cuda and what ever anyone else is targeting. Also Ice Fishing (which I am totally ignorant of (sorry) and Float Fishing which I tried for the first time this fall. I apologize to those that feel we should know everything. Crap, I learn stuff from customers all the time! Its funny though, that every time one of these posts shows up, its the same two or three that come out of the wood work to bash the store. I have seen so many associates delay their lunch, miss breaks and even stay over half an hour (unpaid) after their shift to ensure a customer is satisfied that these kinds of threads really pi$$ me off. I too support local tackle shops (and drop too much money in there as well), but have also been ignored in some of them while the local "Good Ole Boy's Club" gathers in the corner. Such is life. If you think you're getting poor service you need to speak up and be heard by the MOD. BPS stresses Customer Service in all their training. You can't fix what you don't know about. Have a Good Day! Signed, A Dumb Ass BPS employee.

It was a great day just to be part of. What I would really like to know is just how deep the 20 pound bags were?

Nice report Lew. Glad to hear you got out. I know that Double D Bumble Bee Another great trip that can be talked about for years.

Got my Toonie ready!!

Are those your own words Kemper? If so, they are poetic! Very well said.

Great report Steve! Brings back some great memories. Had a buddy that got married at the top of Sulphur Mountain........ hint hint :lol:

Great Report Jay! Those ski's better start shaking now that you've "discovered" them and have caught the disease (as evidenced by the major dent in your credit card recently)!!! :lol: Can't wait to get out with you sometime soon.

Next time out will be with you Buddy!! Can't wait!

My son Paul (Ned Devine) & I had entered the Bass Pro Shops Simcoe Open, our first foray into a Professional Tournament. I was a 58 year old "Rookie" 1st Place paid $10,000 with a $10,000 bonus for a bag over 30 Lbs (5 fish). If you could break the current Canadian Small Mouth record (9.84 Lbs), you would win a Toyota Tundra and Nitro Bass Boat! We were the long shots in the Tournament, not only being rookies and having one of the smallest boats (Tracker Pro-V16 with a 75 Four stroke), but Friday was our first time on the Lake! Some of Canada's best and most famous anglers were in this tournament. Our goal was to finish in the top half of the standings (40th or better in an 80 boat field). We met around noon on Friday and pre-fished for about 5 hours trying some of the spots we had been gathering from fishing buddies. It was windy and cool and the best we could do was catch a perch. It did however give us a chance to see the lake and relate it to the hydrographic maps we had been studying. We pulled the boat out and had an excellent dinner at the Lake Simcoe Arms Restaurant and then went over to register for the tournament. We registered and picked up our awesome gift bag and went back to Paul's home in Brooklin to spend a little quality time with my Grandson Evan (my Granddaughter was already in bed) and retie a number of rods in preparation for morning. We left Paul's at 5:30 am Saturday morning and got to the launch at Sibbald Provincial Park an hour and a half before the start, where it was already a gong show, but a well organized gong show. We got the boat in the water, passed inspection and did some preparation before our blast off. We were boat #48 and would take off in the second wave at 8:15 am. It was very well organized with a staggered launch based on a digital read out from a pontoon boat well offshore. Fishing proved to be extremely tough with wind and steady rain. Many of the spots that we wanted to work already had a dozen boats on them. We tried the shoal off Fox island and the backside of Fox that had structure similar to what we caught our fish at Cooch last week....nothing. We worked the South West side of Snake Island where we were seeing balls of baitfish and lots of "hooks" off an edge in about 25 feet of water. Paul finally says "Get the net!" His rod is bent over and he's got a good one on. Turns out to be about a 10 pound Pike. You can see how excited Paul was to catch this. The day ended on a bit of a sour note for us as my alarm started going off on my motor everytime we got over 3000 rpm.........$$$$$$. The weigh-in was very professionally done with boats (that had fish) trailered up to the stage and fish weighed while being interviewed by Dave Mercer. It was kind of weird sitting out in the water listening to the weigh-ins. You realize that the last boats coming in don't really have much idea of how well they're doing and haven't seen a lot of the awesome fish that have already been weighed in. Mike and Howard Gifford had the winning weight of 28.36 pounds!! The good news is that we achieved our goal by finishing 40th! Unfortunately, we tied with 40 other boats (including many high profile fishermen that had pre-fished all week) that got the old "bagel" as well! :lol: This was a great tournament from the aspect that you didn't have to be a pro to compete. The tournament offered a $2000 prize from Rapala for finishing 36th (the year Rapala was started). Winning weight was 3.74 Lbs.! There was also $1000 for the largest Largemouth Bass (none were entrered last year). There was also a prize for hidden weight and a bonus for best finish with a Yamaha motor. The interesting thing is that the second place team won more than the winning team with their add-ons (Hummingbird/Minn Kota and Shimano Bonus money). I believe it was $11,000 or $12,000. I would like to thank George Wallace of Bass Pro Shops, Herb Quan and the Aurora Bassmasters and Andy Palotta and all the other support staff for running such a well organized and rewarding tournament. Special thanks to Mark Kulik and his Strike Zone Tournament Baits. They didn't do the trick this time out, but we've been catching a whack of fish on his Slammers!!!! It was a great experience and our only regret is that we didn't have fish to weigh-in. Can't wait till next year!!

Congrats again Steve. You've had an incredible year! You're right Wild, it is very humbling to be beat by a woman fishing solo, but "Eva the Fishing Diva" has been kicking our butt for the last two years and I've grown used to finishing behind her. :D The best part of the season for me was fishing all the tournaments with one of my two boys. It doesn't get any better than that.

Great fish Steve!! Hopefully, you fished yerself out on the weekend and will have a tough day on Wednesday :D

Congrats Dawg!! This became an even better place the day you joined. Thanks fer all yer contreebusions :clapping:

Great report Chris. It was great to finally meet you.

Nice report KF. It was great meeting you guys.

Fantastic news Steve! I'm not all that surprised after seeing all the HAWGS you've posted on here. Congrats!

It was great finally meeting you Glen. Hopefully, next time will be for a little bit longer. Glad to hear you got home safely.

It was great meeting everyone. Nice to finally meet Spiel, GCD and all the others (too many to remember) You can say that again Joey!! Once again I had a memorable morning with Lew on Friday. No Muskies, but some great discussion and company!! We stopped at the rest centre just before Vaughn and who do I see as I approached my van but GCD on his way back to 'Bama. Had a nice chat before he left on his mega drive home. We had a great time at Memquisit, but the fishin' was sure tough.

People are always asking me why I would drive 100 kms to work at Bass Pro on weekends. The following story might help explain it. I was working at Bass Pro a couple of weeks ago and I met this really cool customer. His name is Jacob, he is almost 8 years old and his Mom told me that he suffers from severe autism, and that he goes through aggressive therapy through the week. The two of them had discovered fishing together a few weeks previous and it had done miracles for Jacob. It took him to a much better place. Jacob was already quite knowledgeable and took a keen interest in everything I was showing him. I told them about Dave Mercer coming to the store on the 13th and that Jacob would really enjoy meeting him. I contacted Dave and George Wallace (BPS Promotion Manager) and they arranged to meet Jacob in George's Office before Dave did his presentation. I met Jacob and his Mom in the store on the 13th and what followed was truly magical! I first introduced them to George who was busy outside Bar-B-Qing hotdogs for Ducks Unlimited. George dropped everything and led Jacob all over the store gathering goodies By the time he was done, Big Dave was in his office waiting to meet Jacob and sign all the gathered paraphernalia. As you all know, Dave is awesome with all kids, but he was exceptional with Jacob. I really can't describe the feelings I had at that time, watching all this magic happening. Later on he met Dave Chong and Chonger spent a ton of time talking and listening to Jacob. This one says it all His Mother says that she found light coming from under Jacob's bedroom door after he had gone to bed that night. He had his shirt, hat, lures, Dave "Bobble Head" and all his other new found treasures all lined up on his bed and had his new LED hat light illuminating them in the dark. The fishing industry is blessed to have people like the 2 Daves (Mercer and Chong). I witnessed something truly magical this weekend. What also impressed me was the length George Wallace went to ensure Jacob had a truly wonderful day. I see Bass Pro continually getting trashed on this site and I find it particularly frustrating when I know of all the good works that BPS continually performs and so often done under the radar, not doing it for the publicity but because "Its the right thing to do" It wasn't only Jacob that was the beneficiary of all this attention. I also saw the joy in his Mother's eyes as she was capturing these beautiful pictures through the lens of her camera. She was obviously getting as much out of this new experience as Jacob was and was truly overwhelmed. She is as brave as Jacob in dealing with the day to day challenges that were being masked by this magical moment. Combine that with meeting great customers like all the OFNers I meet and a fabulous team of co-workers in the Fishing Dept. and you might get an idea of what makes it all worthwhile! Kind of helps explain what makes that 100 km drive a non-event.

I can only speak for the Tracker Pro Guide V-16. It should be all the boat you need. I have a 75 4-stroke and get 38-39 mph out of it. It will handle rougher water than I can. I've been extremely happy with mine.

I am stunned!! I just read Gary's last post the other day. I know its already been posted, but his personal statement is something we should all take to heart every day. If life was simply a bowl of cherries we would probably start looking for the pits, enjoy life, treasure the good times, keep the good memories with you, and whenever possible live your life to the fullest. I never had the pleasure of meeting him personally (my loss), but it is like I knew him. Its not often that you shed tears for someone you've never personally met. Thank you OFC for some of the wonderful people we would not otherwise meet. Rest in peace my friend.